Ab Initio entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Pfizer for an undisclosed GPCR target, along with a strategic investment by Pfizer. We are honored to have Will Somers, Vice President of Biomedicines Design at Pfizer join our Scientific Advisory Board. Check out the story at Fierce Biotech, and our full release for additional details here.

South San Francisco’s I/O biotech Ab Initio has penned a deal with Big Pharma Pfizer that will help fund the fledging company’s platform expansion.

Ab Initio, which came out of Johnson & Johnson’s Bay Area biotech incubator program just last year, has joined with Pfizer to “discover novel therapeutic antibodies against an undisclosed target in the G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily.”

— FierceBiotech

AB INITIO's Technology are featured at the First Annual CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Immunotherapy Conference

Anyone who follows the progress made with cancer immunotherapy will have gleaned the success the cancer research community has had in developing, testing, and getting FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitors to the clinic. But are antibodies truly the best immune checkpoint inhibitors?

A study presented by Stanford researchers at the conference may take immunotherapy to the next level.

— CANCER RESEARCH Catalyst, the official blog of AACR

Ab Initio wins JLabs@ South San Francisco Quick Fire challenge

March 3, 2015

Ab Initio has won the JLabs Quick Fire challenge, earning a coveted spot and a year of free lab space at the Bay Area's newest biotech incubator. Check out the full story at FierceBiotech and Gen News.

JLABS @South San Francisco’s first occupants are 10 hand-picked upstarts, with 5 that came through J&J’s application process and 5 that won the JLABS Quick Fire Challenge, in which entrants competed to win a year-long stint at the incubator....

Picking the winners, J&J focused on “what every VC would look for,” JLABS head Melinda Richter said: technology that targets an important medical need, great science and a top team.